The Color Red and Other Memories
by mindcaster15
Summary: "...the rosy tint that decks the sky before the sun is set/Aye every leaf I look upon forbids me to forget." Crash. Burn. Coma.


**This will be a pretty long one-shot.**

**I do not own Shugo Chara or any of the characters. This is a poem fic, which would be the same concept as a songfic except with poetry. This is a little angsty, not too terrible. I'll use snippets of different poems. Kukai's background is a little of my own invention, so if you're hardcore to the anime I wouldn't read. I didn't do much, but still. **

**I do not own "The Highwayman," "No One Worth Possessing," "May Wind," "Oh, No We Never Mention Him," or "To the Sky." **

**I haven't been able to use my usual laptop, so my writing has been delayed. This didn't come out the way intended, but it'll do. Please leave an honest review.**

**OooOooO**

_"I said, 'I have shut my heart  
As one shuts an open door,  
That Love may starve therein  
And trouble me no more..."'  
_

Summer always has a way of sneaking up on me. It's a ridiculous thing to say, but it's true. It seems like one day I'm wearing a parka and boots, the next I find upon my feet flip-flops and the scent of sunscreen lingering in my nose. It has crept up on me again, this bright sky with warm colors, the leaves rustling in the wind, but most of all, the sand in between my toes as the waves lap the beach.

_Summer reminds me of him._

I can feel the heat of the sun on my neck, but I refuse to sweat. Sweating is an apalling process in which the body produces salty liquid in some disgusting way to cool itself. I will not participate. I will not give in. My headstrong nature may be my greatest flaw, but it is also my greatest strength. I guess sometimes we humans have a way of benefiting ourselves through hurt.

I glance over at the smoothie shop. It stands cheerily at the sidewalk corner, promising airconditioning and other wonders that would come as a great relief in this horribly hot weather.

Maybe if it hadn't been the same one...

But it was.

_Red/Smoothie/Red_

_The boy at the counter stared at Utau with leprechaun green eyes that reminded her of some impish forest creature, sent to trick her and laugh merrily as it happened. But it was his hair that captured the majority of her attention. A bright, flaming red that he had left in a tousled fiery mess on his head. How his hair could be so red was beyond her comprehension._

_"Can I get you something?" he asked, eyes keeping that same teasing look. A smile quirked at her lips. _

_"A small strawberry smoothie." _

_"That's two fifty." Something about his voice drew a sarcastic tone, though she couldn't see why or how he meant it._

_She forked the money over, and waited with obvious impatience for him to prepare the smoothie and hand it over. She could hear the clock ticking behind her, making her even more aware of the wasted seconds._

_"Patience is a virtue," He admonished, noticing her attitude._

_"And mouthiness will get you fired." She saw a smile slowly curl at his lips, as if he were amused with her answer. She picked up her drink and sat quietly at a booth near the window. _

_She was new at the time and hadn't lived in the small town long. She made friends relatively fast, although she kept them at arms length. Perhaps being new furthered his aura of mystery. Perhaps she was just too curious. Either way, i__t wasn't until later that her interest was truly pricked. She hadn't meant for him to be mentioned, but somehow the strange redhead at the smoothie shop had pushed his way to the conversation topic. It was Tadase who was speaking._

_"He's just a little off his rocker, you know? A nice guy, really, but completely off the rocker."_

_"Knocked off, you mean," Yaya murmured sadly. It was one of the few times that Utau ever saw the child like teenager openly express grief for something. Utau glanced around at the circle of faces._

_"What do you mean?"_

_"His mother was not a particularly kind person." Yaya gave a sad shake of the head, and left her statement at that._

I walk past the _Wild Berry Smoothie Shop_, and act as if it's giant, plastic, mock smoothie isn't even visible to me. The whole place makes that all too familiar cold feeling creep up my spine. Reaching with freezing, ice hands that hold on to my heart and refuse to let go, despite the sun above that persistently beats down on my neck.

I'm ashamed to say that before the accident, I didn't really take an opinion on drunk driving. Oh, sure, I parroted out in my head all the usual arguements, agreed that it was unjust, and unacceptable, but I never really felt an emotion to back up my words. It was just another cause that everyone agrees is wrong, and it wasn't until the night that ended in shattering glass and shrieking metal that I felt it. A place down inside of me that begged, screamed, and howled.

_"Down like a dog on the highway,_  
_And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat..."_

They say I'm cold. But they can't understand. They'll never understand.

_Do not enter/It looks like rain/Just ask for help_

_Utau looked up at ash dark clouds above. It had been five days since the sun had shown his face, and though she didn't mind dark, dreary days, she did dearly miss the sun._

_With an inward sigh she looked at the door. It SAID "Do Not Enter" in large block letters, but did they really mean it? Probably. It would be quicker getting to the room she wanted this way, but the risk of getting caught loomed fairly large in her mind. What were the odds that it was actually guarded?_

_"Do you need some directions?" Utau turned and saw him, the redhead, the boy off his rocker._

_Souma Kukai._

_"No." She turned back to the door and continued to mull over her options. _

_"And they say men are too stubborn to ask for directions."_

_"Is that what they call a witty remark these days? I must be behind the times."_

_She heard an amused snort. "Why don't you just ask for help?"_

_"I don't need any help, thank you."_

_"I asked if you needed it, I didn't offer it."_

_"How gallant of you." She realized how ridiculous it was to banter while she faced the door. She turned to face him, as if staring down a formidable foe. _

It started then. A slow process, to be sure, but that was the beginning of ourfriendship. And it would always be a friendship, in a way. After all, what is the saying?

True love is a friendship set on fire.

_"Softly now with the dawn _  
_I will ride with the wind _  
_O'er the hills through the mist on the wings of thee _  
_Spirit fly, spirit fly to the cloud up above _  
_Spirit fly to a place beyond the sky..."_

Everything has a memory. Coffee cups, parks, even the grass holds his eyes, his laugh, his smile. Nothing has escaped the curse of Kukai Souma, and I'm starting to wonder if anything ever will.

_"For oh! there are so many things recall the past to me,_  
_The breeze upon the sunny hills, the billows of the sea,_  
_The rosy tint that decks the sky before the sun is set;_  
_Ay every leaf I look upon forbids me to forget."_

_Bad Day/Bad Mood/Nothing's going right_

_They hadn't been friends very long, but he was used to her moodiness. What he was not used to, however, was how livid she could become when angry. He stared at her as she kicked her backpack, kicked the mailbox, followed by a kicking of the rock that flew at highspeeds across the street. She then glared glumly down at her toe that would undoubtedly bruise later on._

_"Now I could be wrong, but I'm picking up that something is wrong."_

_She kicked his backpack._

_"Just a guess, really." He added. _

_"I'm sorry." And she was, honest, she hadn't meant to lose it in front of him. She lost her temper, but she didn't like displaying it in front of people._

_"It's all right. You looked tense throughout the day, so I sort of saw it coming." Sort of._

_It had all started out this morning with her Mother. Mother. By blood, but the ties tended to end there. She could still see her stepfather's face, old, frowning with displeasure, the man that Mother had married for reasons that were unknown and completely foreign. Utau saw nothing in him that could possibly be called attractive. _

_"It wasn't the best day." She replied softly._

_"Come on."_

_"What?"_

_"Come on." _

_She followed him, down to the soft, white beach. Everything was quiet except for the sound that the water made as it crashed against the sand. It was one of the few beach places that remained uninvaded by sun bathers, and shrieking half naked teenagers. It was quiet, peaceful, and Utau could feel inside of herself that this was how it once was, and this was what made it special._

_"How did you find this place?"_

_Kukai gave a smile that held little happiness in it. "I needed a place to escape."_

_She didn't know why. But she felt that she should tell him, almost as if she wanted him to know that she had been warned and she was willing to take the chance._

_"They told me to stay away from you."_

_"That doesn't suprise me."_

_"They said you were off your rocker."_

_"Off my rocker?" He gave a half chuckle half snort._

_"Don't laugh. They were absolutely right." _

_She gave him a facetious grin and he gave her one right back._

_"Long, look long and you will be blessed:  
No one worth possessing  
Can be quite possessed..."_

I calmly walk over to where he's sitting. Summer always brings the best out of him. He belongs in summer, this boy who I love, whether it be just plain love or something deeper.

Shatter. Crash. Burn. Coma. But he's back, despite the first week of minor amnesia. He remembers now, and I remember with him, and sometimes in a moment of ridiculous fancy I imagine that we remember together.

_"My room was white with the sun  
And Love cried out in me,  
'I am strong, I will break your heart..._

_Unless You set me free.'"_

**OooOooO**

**I didn't have the heart to kill him. I was planning on it...but I am a fan of happy endings. Please leave a review.**


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